Past Winner - 2013

Arnold Amber: Winner of the 2013 Faculty of Social Sciences Outstanding Alumni Award

The Faculty is proud to present this year’s Faculty of Social Sciences Outstanding Alumni Award to Mr. Arnold Amber.

Mr. Amber graduated from the Faculty of Social Sciences with a bachelor’s degree in political science. He then went on to pursue a master’s degree in political studies at Queen’s University, where he later taught part time and published several chapters in books on African politics and televised election debates.

Much of Mr. Amber’s journalism career was spent at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, where he covered news, current affairs, politics and the electoral processes in Canada and nine other countries. As an executive producer in the television news department, he won three Gemini Awards for producing the best television news specials.

In 1994, Mr. Amber headed a five-country international team that oversaw coverage of South Africa’s first-ever democratic elections. Covering elections during this period of cultural transformation was one of the most complex and rewarding foreign missions of his career as a journalist.

Between 2006 and 2011, Amber was the Director of CWA-SCA Canada, a union that represents communications workers in some 25 newspapers, news agencies, and broadcast centres across Canada. He also served for six years on the Executive Committee of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ).

Mr. Amber is currently the President of Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE), an organization that supports and protects journalists’ rights and free expression in Canada and around the world.

Once again, the Faculty of Social Sciences wishes to offer its most sincere congratulations to Mr. Amber for all his accomplishments. A reception will be held in his honour in January, 2014.